When you start Windows, dozens of programs are already running - many of them invisible and running in the background. What are these programs? Why are they running? Are they safe to run, or are any of them trojans? DiamondCS Autostart Guard is the easy (and free!) solution to this problem. Consisting of two programs, Autostart Guard is the only system you'll ever need to take complete control over the autostarts on your system.

Autostart Viewer is being released as a beta but I don't think you'll encounter any problems, so feel free to grab your free copy at http://www.diamondcs.com.au/index.php?page=asguard
It currently detects a whopping 53 different autostart locations (http://www.diamondcs.com.au/index.php?page=autostarts) - see how long it takes you to manually examine all of these locations without using Autostart Viewer

So it's now a lot harder for trojans to start automatically without being detected, trojan authors might not appreciate this program!

One Windows\Wininit.ini file, whereas I was convinced that in XP only HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager > PendingFileRenameOperations was used for that purpose.

And an Office XP related Ctfmon.exe entry in HKU/Run, not listed in Msconfig...

It would be nice to have a complete listing, though.

I'm not suggesting we're likely to surprise the Diamond CS crew by bringing a startup location to their attention they've never heard about, but baddies do get smarter all the time, and I think it pays to remain vigilant.

I like it and look forward to see where it goes from here . But one small thing in WinXP using the XP windows style the bottom is cut in half the line with DiamondCS . Also I like the jump to reg edit feature .

I noticed a very nice suitable icon for the helpfile (not sure if that is in the current public release too, as i dropped this extracted new beta in my beta-test folder)
I think this icon is called a "Drop Bear".
Huh? To understand this, you'll really have to find in the DCS forums at their site in the "Practicle guide for install your software" in "General" the Australian tourist guide, Q&A 15.
(would not be nice to spare you a tourist tour with the direct link, would it?)

Without taking this thread too far off its topic, what I can say is that I also have entries like that (they are MS active setup related) on my Windows XP system. I always thought these were related to initializing certain functions or capabilities for things like IE and OE at system boot time. Beyond that, I don't know any specifics...

I'd think someone here might know the exact function of these startup entries though. If you'd like to discuss this topic in detail, you could start a new thread in either Other Security Issues or maybe Privacy General.